Woodburn, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Woodburn, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Woodburn lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Woodburn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Woodburn — the short answer
Woodburn, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 657 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 657 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 6a is Woodburn's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Woodburn's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Woodburn
Each reading below is measured for Woodburn itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWoodburn runs about 201 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredWoodburn sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Woodburn is in
Woodburn sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Woodburn's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Allen County is mostly Eastern Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Woodburn
Every plant below cleared Woodburn's own zone 6a and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Woodburn?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Woodburn
Spotted lanternfly documented 17 miles from Woodburn, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Woodburn
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Woodburn. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ALL 17(WOODBURN WATERWORKS WELL 1,PWS IN5202024)Nitrate · 300 ft
- DETENTS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 400 ft
- EAST ALLEN EQUIPMENT INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- ALLEN COUNTY HIGHWAY DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- KNOBLAUCH CONSTRUCTION INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- DOEHRMAN REPAIR SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- United Oil CorporationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Ag Plus IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- NORFOLK & WESTERN RAILROADUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- WJRH IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- WOODBURN DIAMOND DIE INCBrownfields · 1700 ft
- Woodburn Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Woodburn's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Woodburn.
Total Sites
171
within ~10 miles of Woodburn
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Woodburn
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Woodburn
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Woodburn, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 21 sites within ~10 miles of Woodburn. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Woodburn
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Woodburn average
Your land is one point inside Woodburn
Everything above resolves to Woodburn as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 657 acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at city scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Woodburn Average
Woodburn Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Woodburn
- ●One soil character for all of Woodburn
- ●Frost dates read at Woodburn's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Woodburn's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Woodburn
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Woodburn, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Woodburn averages can't show:
We read public map data around Woodburn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Woodburn average
How we know this about Woodburn
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Woodburn’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Woodburn
When does frost risk typically end in Woodburn?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Woodburn typically lands around Apr 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about May 2.
When is the first frost in Woodburn?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Woodburn typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Woodburn?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Woodburn sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 15, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Woodburn?
The federal record around Woodburn is a meaningful one — 171 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (85), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Woodburn?
From about Sep 29 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Woodburn's scale — its 6a band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Woodburn's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Woodburn’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Woodburn's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 657 acres it covers and 171 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Woodburn's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Woodburn's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 29 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 171 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Woodburn, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Woodburn's boundary and the 657 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Woodburn sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Woodburnlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Woodburn's 657 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Allen County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Allen County
- The growing challenges every Indiana grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Indiana
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Allen County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Woodburn's 657 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Woodburn you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 657 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Woodburn-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaWoodburn sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides